CURRENT GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 6255, 3 December 1881, Page 3

CURRENT GOSSIP.

Three embassies have been, from time to time, refused by Mr. Longfellow. The "Nun of Kenmare" is seriously ill. An overworked nervous system is said tc be the cause. The African explorer Stanley promises a third volume on the spore and the natural history of the Dark Continent. Educated natives in India are driving the less temperate and thrifty persons of European descent from the Government offices. Mr. Latiouchere says tha comparing male and female clerks in public offices, the palm of efficiency is to I e given o the women. For the plays in which Mr. "Irving has been acting at Leeds, England, thirty-four suits of armour and seven hundred dresses were needed. \\ ashington drew his last breath in tho last hour of the last day of the last week of the last month of the last year of the last century, December 31st, 17fi!>. The late librarian of the British Museum, Mr. Winter Jones, was the son of John Jones, the author of "Little Goody Twoshoes,' and was proud of his dc-seent. hen Kalakaua gi-.ts home, and he takes the route via New inrk and San Francisco, he will enjoy the distinction of being the only reigning monarch who has been around the ivorld. One of the Paris Rothschilds will bequeath to the Louvre his pictures, gathered during a lifetime, and costing -25.000,000 francs. A million francs goes' with the collection to keep it in good shape. The charges of unblushing and undoubted plagiarism are again revived in connection with Owen Meredith's "Lucille," which is really nothing but a rhyming translation of a novel of George Sands. The New York Times printed two articles recently, one to show "hat Pocahontas never was married to Rolfe, and the other that Joan of Are was never hunicd at the stake. These are evil days for myths. The Empress of Germany is a fine landscape gardener. Among her pleasures is that of visiting a poor children's play-ground, which she has laid out, and filled with swings and playthings, where she scatters gifts and sweetmeats.

Mr. Healy, an Irish mc-tnber of Parliament, had occasion to say, not long since, that there were murders with which Kuglishmen sympathized, as, for instaneo, that of Charles 111 But on being corrected in his history, he remarked that "an Irishman cannot be expected to be up in English history." For the first time in his life the Emperor of Japan has been asked for his autograph. The letter bearing the request was the first ever written to any Emperor of Japan by a foreigner. It is the unanimous opinion of all persons of eminence that the asker should commit hari-kari.

" A spray of white heather," broken from the bush at which the Marquis of Lome and the Princess Louise plighted truth, was given on one occasion by the Princess herself, as a mark of great favour, to Lord 1 fatherly, who was probably the oldest Sunday-school teacher in England at the time of his death. Mr. Toole, in a speech which he recently delivered at Edinburgh, incidentally mentioned that he, like Mr. Sims Reeves, and Mr. Henry Irving, bujau His career in that city, at which time he received £'J a week, Mr. Irving £'2 10s., and Mr. Sims Reeves about :los. "Of course." added the actor," " wc get a little more now."

Old Captain Trelawncv, the good Friend of Byron, who lifted the sheet from his dead feet to see and tell the world that one of them was a elub foot, was described, at the age of eighty-seven, shortly before his death, as tall and commanding, with bulging eyebrows overhanging deep-set, blue-grey eyes, a hawk's nose, a grim mouth scarred by the bullet of a Greek assassin, anil altogether with the bearing of an ancient sea-pirate.

Buttermilk, a beverage which is becoming quite fashionable in some largo cities, is not sufficiently appreciated in the country, where it can be had at its bi.st. Its medicinal properties can scarcely be overrated. It is excellent for dyspeptics, for nervous people, and for those who are troubled with sleeplessness. Of course there are many people who, not liking it, would perhaps bo unable to acquire a taste for it, but for those who like it there is no summer drink which is more wholesome.